Currently working towards my masters in urban planning. I started this path hoping to work on pedestrianizing streets. My transportation planning course has just been CEOs and planning directors coming in and telling us about how we need to keep supporting car infrastructure and how public private partnerships are the best, its been so disheartening
You are a beacon of light in a field full of ideologues (some with decent ideas but w/e) who, understandably, fail to understand that the study & field of Urban Planning has no inherent normative content. The sooner we can reckon with that and what it means the better. This video rips, keep on keeping on.
I'm graduating with an undergrad degree in planning this week. I've learned a lot, both from my classes and participating in activism on campus. Your videos, and especially sharing resources from other radical planners, are opening a door I've barely been shown in my curriculum. It's easy to feel on my own as a leftist in my planning courses, I'm sure it'll be even more so in the field as a young professional. Because of that, I appreciate what you're doing here a lot.
I think this is one of the most exciting leftist channels on youtube right now. I know RP would probably insist they're just the messenger for theory here, but they're the one curating the theory and it just so happens to amount to some of the most exciting and refreshing left urbanist self-criticism I've personally encountered since Bookchin. They give a coherent and holistic voice to those nagging little concerns (Which are actually big concerns) that would have otherwise remained dissonant, unresolved tensions in my brain.
I 100% agree! I like to think of myself doing the same thing but this guy is leagues ahead of me in that journey. I just joined my city's planning board and seeing firsthand what I have to work with is kind of discouraging... but discovering RP's channel recently has helped me with my daily hope pill intake.
I think you're doing a great job taking the heavier academic theories making them accessible. This is a really thought provoking topic that points out to me how quick left leaning people are to embrace centrist talking points when it comes to planning. Excellent video as always! Also, I busted out laughing during the Carl Abbott quote. My humor might be juvenile but I lost it with the cheese burger at 16:36.
The title of this video initially scared be, with how things have been recently, I was afraid of my image of what urban planning is would be shattered and I would feel left with a lot of wasted time. I have been doing my undergrad in geography, and working with the urban geography professors as much as I can, and I have been hopeful for the future. This is all to say that I'm glad I ended up watching this video all the way through. While it might be hard to hear at first, deep down I know and have known this all to be true. I'm thankful that my urban geography professor at my university has not shied away from topics like this, though not going as far as you do in the video. I think it is important for everyone interested in urban geography, especially if you are looking to study it, to be aware of the reality of the system. I've been very lucky to have been challenged in college with the idea that just because the system is one way now, does not mean it is the only way. We need more radical thinkers in this space, and I hope you are right that we are in the education period. I've recently felt pushed away from the "urban planning youtube" sphere because none of it feels like it challenges anything, and I see now it is due to this depoliticized nature of the videos i was watching. Thank you for making this video, it is thoroughly engaging and informative!
I think you could expand that to "The application of principles of design, such as abstraction, high level organization, and modeling future conditions, to the urban form, meaning the concept of the city but not necessarily the physical space." Hence why urban planners don't actually do that much materially. They work on the idea/concept/form of the city, and then someone else gets to control literally everything else. Design itself has a problematic where it divorces thinking work from direct material work while subordinating the latter under the former, but that is some level 5 anarchist stuff and we are currently living in capitalist hell were I come off as bougie for talking about this kind of weird shit.
As someone whose introduction to the socialism pipeline was urban planning and the crimes of auto/gas lobbies, I cannot thank you enough for your channel and your insight. Looking back, it's like a miracle I ended up so far left starting in such a place where everyone online is saying the same capitalist solutions like it wasn't capitalism that got us into this mess. Much love, can't wait for the next video.
Sitting down to watch this now; expecting it to be meaty, as always. As a decade-long volunteer on city & county transportation & planning commissions, I've seen a lot of planning shenanigans that has opened my eyes to the reality of what it really is. But your videos (and our conversations) have even exploded all that. Thanks for your insightful research and deep, deep thinking. It's so rare on the internet (or anywhere, really, nowadays).
Another banger as usual. I do truly think that this is a major issue facing people working on the hyper local level. People just assume that things happening near them, like a park being built or a new apartment building are not political. The worst thing I've ever heard was the phrase "not to get all political" at a city council meeting. Ideological conflict is something local advocates and the general public arent used to.
I agree and I think it stems from the fact that (as mentioned in the video) people still view capitalism and representative democracy as these neutral, apolitical systems that would be ideal, if not for a few “bad apples” here and there. So to question those things is seen as having some sort of bias.
Thanks for the video, I've been waiting for you to finish it. (Also no rush, go at whatever pace you need.) Something hit me as you were delivering your closing comments. I admit to enjoying citynerd videos, I think Ray is a well-meaning guy and he does have an actual planning background. BUT he doesn't seem willing or able to ask the questions behind the questions that serve as seeds for his videos. It's always "What are the top 10 walkable US cities that won't bankrupt you?", but it's never "what are the necessary conditions that require us to ask questions like this?" With each of your videos, it becomes a bit clearer to me that the deep conservatism of neoliberal RETVRN planning ideology plays around at the surface. It will probably never knock the legs out from under its own stool. That takes work from the rest of us. Excited to see where you take this channel, thanks again for the videos. ✌
A masterpiece of a video. It’s a rough time for a lot of things, but it’s turning out to be a golden age of “learning leftist theory without listening to or becoming an asshole” thanks to videos like this and creators/educators like you. Unbelievably impressive that you are doing this in your free time while also managing a synth problem. Glad I can sign up to support the effort, keep fighting the good fight!
I really enjoyed this video! Radical planning was never discussed during my education as an urban planner! This vid gives voice to a lot of concerns i’ve had in my work as a transportation planner. We aim to collect lots of public outreach for our plans, but the only thing public input impacts are our goals and objectives, but never the built environment directly. On top of that state departments of transportation can completely ignore this little bit of say the public has when they have their own goals of expanding roads because the level of service is “bad” (ie, we want to expand car throughput for financial gain. In the case of my town, that gain is expanding the ports). I do work and sometimes feel like my job exists for the appearance of progress and community cooperation, when in actuality, state DOTs, developers, and the richest residents only win. I’ve struggled to connect public input to direct societal improvements, but i now realize my city was designed to be that way. Give the appearance of input while bowing to business interests only.
Also, i am an Active Transportation Planner as well!! Although it sometimes seems hopeless, we have made some progress because i’m weirdly passionate and hyper-focused on multi-modal transportation. Lots of cool safety and bike/ped projects are coming to the area, a lot of which i and my coworkers pushed for. That makes me hopeful that things could change, even if there are other glaring problems occurring. Also, the section on rational planning was so cathartic and gets in the way of actually good planning. My least favorite form of this “rational” planning is the Performance Based Planning, in which we decide what number of human life is acceptable to lose on our roadways, should we target for. I also hate the Level of Service and future transportation modeling. We make major decisions based on what we believe future traffic will be, and destroy entire communities through road expansion!! Can’t wait to dive into all the resources you provided!
You continue to inspire me to not get jaded about working in planning and landscape architecture. Thank you for keeping me going, growing, and thinking
As a planning student, I have to say that finding this channel has really helped me grapple with my increasing disillusionment with the field. In the beginning days of my degree I, like most others dipping their toes in the planning sphere, enjoyed watching 'urbanist' youtube. However now, after spending years studying planning theory, I find that those channels can honestly be a bit poisonous sometimes, particularly in the way it seems that they desire for every city in the world to be an Amsterdam 2.0. It became clear to me that many of these channels (which, notably, are very often just white men who have taken an interest in planning and not actual planners/people who have taken the time to really educate themselves about the field/people whose lives are upended by oppressive planning) were popularizing the idea that urbanist ideology is the course for an equitable future, ignoring the perspectives of people who are oppressed by urbanism practices, and labelling critics as NIMBYs. I mean, as much as planners nowadays like to tout that its a 'gender-balanced field', it still operates under the norms of white masculinity, as it has always done! Anyway, that's all to say that I really appreciate finding your critical voice amongst all these sycophants (maybe a tad dramatic lol). Rant over!
about 5 years into an urban planning career here (and 2 minutes into the video): I think we can't discredit racial justice movements of 2020 and books like the color of law (even if most people only consumed summaries) as major influences on its current popularity as a topic
i’m really thankful for finding your channel please keep the faith. as a leftist who’s only learned urban planning through youtube, my planner friends, and a few books on neoliberalism and urban development - this channel has already changed my perspective on the development of my gayborhood in my hometown and so much of others. i really am thank you!
A great video. It's so true that the urbanist space is incredibly homodox in theory. I also absolutely agree with your conclusion that planners - if we really desire a better world - need to think politically. It is not enough for planners to be technical experts or mouthpieces, they must be political organizers. Every plan must be a number in a manifesto, every community a coalition & constituency.
I couldn’t have put it better. Planners becoming organizers is just what we need for American cities to become as ready the level of their foreign peers. Perhaps lawyers and consultants need to become organizers and activists as well - or are they already?
this is seriously the most insightful urban planning video I've ever watched. that perpetual push & pull & resulting tension between wanting more housing (more development), & understanding the underlying, structural reasons behind why the housing crisis exists. advocating for those short term bandaid 'solutions' that don't address the crux of the issue
Half a year well spent sir. I have been on the fence recently about going back to school for civil engineering (cost in terms of time and it’s monetary proxy; also, mind-breaking difficulty and overall hyper-competitive incentive structure) until I watched this: now I have a moral imperative to go. (And yes, I did just kick Hume in the Kant)
Watched every minute. As an aspiring planner, looking out and thinking to myself, “hmmm… it seems like there’s not a ton of planning focused roles out there focused on food insecurity, climate resilience, equitable and varied transportation…” thanks to you, I see that’s because those are not neoliberal things, and thus not the goal of urban planning as it stands today. Subscribed! Excited to learn more
I've been an elected planning board member for about half a year now. I don't come from a planning background. I knew I hated the hyper individualized built environment I grew up in, and wanted to do something about it. Strong Towns was my first way of getting simple, actionable steps to organizing my neighbor's to fight for something. I'd love for you to do a deeper dive into complimenting or critiquing them. They help an idiot like me understand what i can do about the problem on the ground level. I struggle to understand how to apply theory in the real world, ya know? I just fought in my last planning board meeting to make building backyard cottages easier because i felt the board was trying to add as much legal friction as possible. I lost, but I also can't help but wonder if my de regulatory stance was just fighting for the neo liberal status quo? I just feel like it's a good option to make more affordable housing. Maybe I'm wrong. I'd love any insights anyone has.
Hey, I have been listening to Strong Towns as well. Never got involved though. I think Strong Towns is a conservative movement, with a big focus on the fiscal conservatism values. They have a simple message that is hard to ignore because it's... common sense? Haha, that's the limit of my "political analysis". Applying the lens that RP mentioned though to something that Strong Towns would support: * What is being planned - A priority-lane for buses on a stroad * For whom is it being planned - For people in a wealthy suburb so they can get downtown faster * By whom is it being planned - planners in consultation with councillors from the suburb * How is it being planned - not sure, I've forgotten what communicative planning is but I guess that since it's common these days * Where is it being placed - on a stroad. Maybe there are other poorer suburbs nearby that don't have easy access to a bus stop and they'll just have to deal with more traffic now as they still need to drive on fewer lanes. I'm not sure how relevant the assumed example is, nor whether I did a good job with the analysis. But it's important to try to practice what we learn from an hour long video. Stay radical ✊
I feel you about whether the fight you're fighting is from the side of good. All I can say is that we will never have perfect information nor perfect wisdom. If it turns out you fought for de-regulation and ended up further entrenching private property rights, well at least you tried in good faith. Next time you'll do better. Commit based on the information and wisdom you have now, don't judge based on hindsight, seek to learn more, and pivot if needed.
Absolutely great video. Just found your channel through this video. I really appreciate this viewpoint and knowledge about urbanism. As someone who's been in the urbanist circle for awhile and beginning to see the disconnect between online circles and actual on the ground politics of city planning. This helped me to fill in the gaps of my knowledge about why things are the way they are. Keep up the fantastic work.
I absolutely love your youtube channel. Your videos are extremely high quality, and I commend you for that. I was already well on my way deep into leftist ideology, but you present it in a very digestible and legible way. I absolutely love your scripts and presentation. I can't thank you enough. I was "orange pilled" about a year ago now, but I was put off when I learned of the pitiful centrist Neo-Liberal aether around it all. When I found your channel, I was, and am, in the younger side and I was always very open to marxism and radical leftism, but your channel really helped ferry me along into viewing urbanism from a leftist perspective. Of course, I'm doing my own research and coming to conclusions on my own, and I don't use you as a source. I like to think I know better than that, the nature of medium and translation and all that. Tldr, I just wanted to say thanks. I really like your stuff it's really eye-opening, and I really deeply appreciate what you're doing. I can never view urbanism the same now. I feel so embarrassed as to how naive I was (and still am) 😅. Also, the synths in the background are one of my favorite parts of your videos. Have a great day, and thank you again.
My local city created a city operated concrete crew to fix sidewalks and potholes instead of hiring contractors. I’m hoping we can grow it to also build more infrastructure, like bike lanes, in the future. That’s my main source of hope for leftist progress in my city. It might not address the profits of nearby landlords but at least more of the money of the development process will go to the workers and city residents.
This video put into words a lot of ideas that I've had bouncing around my head during my planning undergrad. A sinking feeling I've had in the back of my brain navigating the job market after school while considering going to grad school. Well done.
Loved the radical geography shoutout! I'm not an urban planner, but I am an urban geographer. I think this video captured some of the issues I've had, but been unable to articulate, with a lot of the mainstream leftist discussion of urban planning. I found this channel originally through your critique of third spaces, and really grown to like it. I feel your videos are consistently engaging, pick up relevant topics, both for pressing material issues and for advancing the theoretical leftist discourse. Also, I feel very well versed the geography theory, so I think its healthy for me to be exposed to some of the tools and theories that are specific to urban planning. It is helping me gain a deeper understanding of my own field, which I really appreciate.
I love your channel. I got in to this stuff through the urbanism RUclips channels, and found yours through the third place vid you make. I love your stuff.
Thanks for making academic writing easier for the layperson to understand. I try to read academic books or papers sometimes, but I always give up after like 4 pages, it just doesn't feel like English. I appreciate your videos!
I suspect the interest in urban planning has something to do with the increasing gentrification and privatization of cities, contrasted with the stagnation of wages and the crumbling state of our environment/social services/ politics. People see that neoliberal capitalism is in its death knell and desperately want to find alternatives.
This. The general consensus that our current civilisation is in its death throes is hard to ignore. People can hoard canned food and ammunition to try o get themselves through the collapse, or they can work to rebuild before the collapse actually happens so that their families and communities survive and thrive together. The only previous collapse of civilisation we really know much about is the fall of Rome - and we know the average person was better off afterwards, especially if they were a slave before and were now free, but also that only applied if they didn't die in the chaos.
easy: urban planning is whatever the people in charge want or are payed to 'want' to build and maintain. thats why nimbys hold so much power by simply existing
It's like you read my mind with making this video - I've been trying to find leftist sources on this for so long. Not that they don't exist, but they're vastly outnumbered and not promoted anywhere online or in academia. Keep up the good work!
Great video. Good humour. Sweet beard. Thanks for all the work you do on your channel and content, and out there in the world. Also, I liked your more casual ending comments. Peace !
I definitely fell for the pop-urbanism RUclips trend. This video has not only helped me break down my preconceived notions about urban planning as inherently leftist but also forced me to start interrogating my own career path as an Environmental Engineer as I too will be working within the confines of capital when working to better the health of the planet.
urban planning for me is when I hate driving and I want to impose that preference on everyone else (I unironically hate driving and want to impose that on everyone else)
As a disabled person who cannot go anywhere other than in a private car, the more people you can provide with more attractive options than private cars, the easier it will be for people like me to be taken wherever we need to go. Just don't forget we exist and we'll support you all the way. Also, it's been seven years and I still don't have a disabled parking tag, so please don't assume every disabled person has received one. The government has big financial incentives to pretend people aren't disabled, but sadly, pretending ever so hard still doesn't make the disability go away.
Great video! Would love to see you tackle post- and de-growth approaches to urban planning, the literature isn't huge but seems to me to have more legs than the frugality-based approaches
Around the 50 minute mark, I was just sitting there repeating to myself "A system is what it does, it is not what it SAYS it does." (Also, I appreciate this work because I've been... hunting for interesting planning channels that weren't people holding up the Netherlands as the Most Perfect Example in the World. Am not trying to position you against that, but it's been interesting to listen to a handful of videos.)
Holy S___! This might just be one of the most eye-opening videos I have ever seen in this space. No offense to all the rest, but this is the really deep down fundamental stuff we need to be talking about in urbanism circles, or we're never going to get to any of the dreamy ought-to-be ideas we're so focused on. Plus, I think you really reveal something I've been talking about for awhile, but which gets all kinds of scorn from leftist and progressives (and was a huge part of why I finally left X/Twitter, before Elon); improving cities (urbanism) needs to be a core part of any progressive/leftist ideology, but it's almost universally not, in my experience. People not only don't want to talk about it, but so many will go the extra step of accusing you of being "bougie" or "out of touch" for trying to inject the topic into a discussion. Yet, as I think you've laid out so well in this video (if my conclusion is correct): is that economy/system/power and cities/built-environment are intimately intertwined, and cannot simply be teased apart and separated into these distinct and isolated threads with any kind of real success. So, it's not only that the economic/governing model of society needs to change, in order to actually get to more human cities, but that the cities themselves also need to change in order to actually sustainably empower a change in the economic and governing model of society.
14:21 Missed an opportunity to rhetorically ask what deregulation means (usually it means whoever uses the word to describe their agenda first, despite usually expanding corporate bureaucracy)
Proud to say I knew this was a trick question since this is literally the field I’m studying. Still, it being so hard to think of a concise definition, especially to people who aren’t already familiar with it, is a bit embarrassing 😅
Recently read Seeing Like A State by James C Scott. I found it a very helpful corrective to the kind of modernist optimism about central planning schemes.
Incredible video! I paused and rewind multiple times and finally completed my first pass through. I will need to do another pass through to fully understand this. Technical request - Can you turn up the volume while recording?
6:16 you know, in real world, if the property value continues to increase outpacing real wage and it usually does, it's going to hurt the overall economy. so if the rise of the property value is the goal or means of your urban planning, it's doomed. i call this the bitter fruits of tying the revenue of a municipality to "property tax", which correlates with the property value. a well designed or functioning region is where people can go to their destinations with the least cost on everoney and the best convenience. i think the "racial" part should be on taxing rather than urban planning. taxes should come from economic activities, not the value of some eversitting property.
All taxes should be based on capacity to pay. Either income tax, or expenditure tax, or a combination of both. This doesn't preclude levying a vice tax on things like alcohol that people really don't need, or even imports tariffs despite how they suppress the economy, but it does mean we don't charge a tax on the saleable value of things people aren't even trying to sell. I spent years watching my blind elderly grandmother shell out six weeks' gross income every year just in property taxes on the house she had inherited from her parents - and that was after the discount she got for being elderly and legally blind. I will never see property taxes as other than a means to drive out the poor and disabled from wealthy neighbourhoods so the rich don't have the inconvenience of seeing poor and disabled people in their streets.
What do you think of USSR style city planning? From what i know, i admire the interaction of city with nature side of things, the green belts around cities, protected forests in the city landscapes (that are sadly being slowly eroded away and in their place - horrible 18 story building in the middle of nowhere), public transit (the disfunctional economy couldnt produce 37716462 cars, had to fill fields of tanks, which is well, happy coincidence) and housing (khrushchevki and the rest) , which is nowadays very popular to crititicise.
i think they had some cool ideas, but i am personally avoidant of highly centralized, cookie cutter approaches. i get why they did it- creating new cities out of nothing doesn’t invite a lot of differing ideas. i’m hoping to compare 50s/60s soviet planning with american planning of the same era at some point next year, but i don’t have a lot of conclusions on it right now.
I think your is-ought distinction in how to define planning is interesting, but I also think is misses the academic vs institutional planning distinction: Planning in academia is a set of tools that can be used to analyse how different land use patterns and built environments effect people, society, and the economy. Planning in practice is the state mediating between the property interests of different groups in society by deciding how to distribute space within an urban environment. Both planning in academia and planning in practice are how planning is currently rather than how planning ought to be, and I think that a lot of the definitions you mention try to amalgamate these 2 different forms of planning into 1 definition.
I love this! Have you ever considered going over historical socialist planning and explaining their pros and cons? (If you've already done this, I apologise for my ignorance)
i am hoping to discuss this at some point this year: monoskop.org/images/d/dc/Gutnov_Alexei_et_al_The_Ideal_Communist_City_1971.pdf not sure when i’ll get there but i’m looking forward to it!
Nicely done. If I were to nitpick, I’d point out that John Locke provided most of the intellectual justification for the establishment and maintenance of a system of white supremacy in the US, but otherwise it was very good.
this is true and a caveat would have been helpful- i didn’t mean to say that i like his liberalism, just that whatever we have now is the worst of all worlds regarding the fathers of liberalism
Urban planning is the process of designing cities and other population centres with the intent of improving their performance according to the designer's codified or unexamined beliefs and priorities. Will that do?
Hi, I'm new here as a friend sent me a couple of your videos. What does urban planning look at under socialism? When you arrived at the definition of what urban planning is I had that question. Because it seemed fixated to it's historic relationship to capitalism. What did / does urban planning look like in the USSR, DPRK, China, Vietnam, Cuba, etc.
It's just marketing spin so vested interests can make as much money as possible while pretending to deliver something the people may actually want. Well, that's definitely what it is in Australia.
Fire video!!! You should join and write for the Planners Network, a network for progressive planners Likely you’re aware of them though Anyway… I’d love to see these ideas written out regardless of where you publish
i actually interviewed Tom Angotti of PN a while back: ruclips.net/video/jjQUlg_cSZc/видео.html i hope to write someday, but for now i only have enough time an energy for the vids!
just because you mentioned simcity. You should review Magnasanti for an april fools video or so. Great channel, many of your ideas go over my head becuase I though of city grownth as being somewhat organic, but I'm glad to gain a new perspective on gesellschaftskritik never mind: just got the part lol
Fantastic work! I appreciate your clear leftist take on urban planning. Exposing the is-ought gap in current urban planning approaches helps to inform the average citizen when new planning gets announced.
38:05 Not just priced or bought out... L&I will condemn your single apartment to aid a hostile landlord evict you, even if the basis for the condemnation is their illegal removal of power and water utilities.
Fair Housing, the police, Philly311, and the courts will not do their jobs and the office of inspector general will not investigate the inspectors' failure to document all issues, the process server lying to the court about delivering lawsuit notices, about the city Philly311 vendor lying about 5 month outages, and their own failures to help citizens per legal parameters. Non-profits will ignore those who can afford to pay when no lawyer will represent such a client for money, when they lose their job that person won't "look poor" enough to deserve help either. The courts will not see the issues as an emergency and deprioritize the case and then allow the property owner to ignore court orders and destroy ones belongings. One may wait a year for trial and at trial the property owners lawyer may submit surprise evidence not disclosed during the discovery phase of the pre trial period. They may lie, introduce false evidence, slander your name and character during the trial. After trial, it may be four months and counting before a judge reaches a verdict. One may spend half their life savings while there were more than 30 failed inspections, a failed eviction hearing, 8 police reports, shutoff water and power, harassment, photographic evidence, bank records of escrow payments, and other evidence against a property owners not disclosed faked photos. This will not shorten the four months and counting... They may unjustly enrich themselves redeveloping the property for AirBnB after one is removed. They may not ever have to get an inspection to make the roof decks safe, to fix the unsafe kitchrn renovations, to correct the boiler that was venting into the basement directly below a chase serving one's neighbor and one's apartments. One and one's neighbor may lose their homes of over a decade. One may lose faith in the City, the law, and the sociology one studied at university. One may receive no help from their LGBT community of which they were an integral member and supporter. One may wish the landowner had killed them rather than continue slowly circling the drain. Ask me how I know....
i mean this in good faith bc i think there's a need for ppl who help implement and coordinate changes to environments that ppl live in, but i don't see very developed radical vision or praxis laid out in the "building an alternative" portion of the video. forming a group and making "strong demands" to the state is not revolutionary. when you say "hold the line until we get them," what does that mean to you? and in settler states, to what end? to have settlers making choices about land they have no relationship to? there's no radical urban planning without at least a decolonization or land back shout out. this is like... DSA urban planning
it’s called “building an alternative” in reference to the need to build an alternative, not as a precise guide on how to do so. in that segment i said education is the most important thing right now because this movement is nonexistent. that segment was not a call to action, it was a rough outline of how any movement gains power. my videos are not guides for organizing, they are critiques on neoliberal urban planning.
Radical needs to be defined in a context. Don't you think that neoliberalism ideology is so steeped in urban planning that the very act of questioning and rejecting mini-ideologies like YIMBYism is radical? Capitalism subsumes everything because people try to work within its framing and limitations. Dismantling that framing is radical. Forming a group and making strong demands to the state may not be sufficient, but it is definitely necessary.
I really don't think I have met a planner who has the intellectual capacity to understand any part of your definition of urban planning. I have a rather comical image of a slack jawed planner staring at your definition while a fly is flitting in and out of their mouth. My view of a planner's job while working for a city is to provide good advise. Hopefully, that good advise will be stated in a way that is compelling. My point is, that is the limit of what a planner can do; advise. You might say, "well that's simple and obvious," but where I am from, good planning advise seldom happens. While I have studied the problem for a long time and there are lots reasons why good advise doesn't happen, but the most significant reason seems to be that planners don't seem to know what they are doing, why they are doing in it and how to do it. The act of planning doesn't seem to be taught in schools here. Planning is an effort to solve an economic problem: how do we make a given area more productive? Productivity would be determined by the number of people who use that area, the number of uses for that area, and what is made or produced in that area. Another consideration is the duration that area is to be used, which requires considering the sustainability of the activities in that area. Let's say we are considering an area that is a park. Our relevant concerns are how many people use the park, what is the park used for, and what is produced in the park. The product might be community events, family and friend gatherings, play, rest, fitness to name just a few. Our next question is how easy is it to engage in the activities provided for by said park. This is just economics. The advice derived from answers to these questions is going to be useful. Politicians will be able to make sound decisions based on this advise, and urban designers are going to be able to start the design process based on this same advise. A wise professor once told me that economics is a long running study of human behaviour. When he said it the first thing I thought was, "Hey, that's what I do." And then I thought, "Oh my god. does this mean that I'm an economist?" and then I thought, "If I am an economist, how do I keep this from my mother." As it turns out, planning is just a practical application of what we understand of human behaviour through the study of economics as it relates to land use. . . Still, I didn't tell my mom that I do planning. As a planner, though, I am much more sympathetic to the writings of Adam Smith than Karl Marx. This might be because I'm something of a moralist and I think that if we care for, and appreciate all manner of human behaviour we can encourage good, productive behaviour by recommending urban form that accommodates it. Your thoughts are very compelling, I enjoy them very much.
Never heard of urban planning before and only clicked the video because I thought the guy was hot TBH. BUT I'm glad I did because I thought it was really interesting
To say that cities cannot be built under other economic theories outside of capitalism is just false. Also I too am an urban planner working in the Rust Belt, and while getting my MUPP I never had a class that involved games to instruct. This is very weird to me, particularly as this does little to resolve the problems plaguing cities across the US. The only value I can see is if you're developing burbs out of farmland.
@@radicalplanning Abroad I would suggest you look at Mondragon, Spain. Instead of pontificating and dismissing, look for solutions. Cities, particularly in the US, need help responding to crises BECAUSE of neoliberal capitalism. Urban Planning is a comparatively young study, but one that grew out of social, economic, and environmental disasters of the first Gilded Age.
Currently working towards my masters in urban planning. I started this path hoping to work on pedestrianizing streets. My transportation planning course has just been CEOs and planning directors coming in and telling us about how we need to keep supporting car infrastructure and how public private partnerships are the best, its been so disheartening
I don't think you can do much with the capitalistic system
This is what I'm afraid of :/
You are a beacon of light in a field full of ideologues (some with decent ideas but w/e) who, understandably, fail to understand that the study & field of Urban Planning has no inherent normative content. The sooner we can reckon with that and what it means the better. This video rips, keep on keeping on.
I'm graduating with an undergrad degree in planning this week. I've learned a lot, both from my classes and participating in activism on campus. Your videos, and especially sharing resources from other radical planners, are opening a door I've barely been shown in my curriculum. It's easy to feel on my own as a leftist in my planning courses, I'm sure it'll be even more so in the field as a young professional. Because of that, I appreciate what you're doing here a lot.
congrats! and don’t stress it, you will find other radical planners in the field, they just usually keep it quiet.
I think this is one of the most exciting leftist channels on youtube right now. I know RP would probably insist they're just the messenger for theory here, but they're the one curating the theory and it just so happens to amount to some of the most exciting and refreshing left urbanist self-criticism I've personally encountered since Bookchin. They give a coherent and holistic voice to those nagging little concerns (Which are actually big concerns) that would have otherwise remained dissonant, unresolved tensions in my brain.
oh my god thank you
I 100% agree! I like to think of myself doing the same thing but this guy is leagues ahead of me in that journey. I just joined my city's planning board and seeing firsthand what I have to work with is kind of discouraging... but discovering RP's channel recently has helped me with my daily hope pill intake.
I think you're doing a great job taking the heavier academic theories making them accessible. This is a really thought provoking topic that points out to me how quick left leaning people are to embrace centrist talking points when it comes to planning. Excellent video as always!
Also, I busted out laughing during the Carl Abbott quote. My humor might be juvenile but I lost it with the cheese burger at 16:36.
The title of this video initially scared be, with how things have been recently, I was afraid of my image of what urban planning is would be shattered and I would feel left with a lot of wasted time. I have been doing my undergrad in geography, and working with the urban geography professors as much as I can, and I have been hopeful for the future. This is all to say that I'm glad I ended up watching this video all the way through. While it might be hard to hear at first, deep down I know and have known this all to be true. I'm thankful that my urban geography professor at my university has not shied away from topics like this, though not going as far as you do in the video. I think it is important for everyone interested in urban geography, especially if you are looking to study it, to be aware of the reality of the system. I've been very lucky to have been challenged in college with the idea that just because the system is one way now, does not mean it is the only way. We need more radical thinkers in this space, and I hope you are right that we are in the education period. I've recently felt pushed away from the "urban planning youtube" sphere because none of it feels like it challenges anything, and I see now it is due to this depoliticized nature of the videos i was watching. Thank you for making this video, it is thoroughly engaging and informative!
I said "it's when you plan an urban", thanks for letting me off the hook. Now to finish the video
I think you could expand that to "The application of principles of design, such as abstraction, high level organization, and modeling future conditions, to the urban form, meaning the concept of the city but not necessarily the physical space."
Hence why urban planners don't actually do that much materially. They work on the idea/concept/form of the city, and then someone else gets to control literally everything else.
Design itself has a problematic where it divorces thinking work from direct material work while subordinating the latter under the former, but that is some level 5 anarchist stuff and we are currently living in capitalist hell were I come off as bougie for talking about this kind of weird shit.
As someone whose introduction to the socialism pipeline was urban planning and the crimes of auto/gas lobbies, I cannot thank you enough for your channel and your insight. Looking back, it's like a miracle I ended up so far left starting in such a place where everyone online is saying the same capitalist solutions like it wasn't capitalism that got us into this mess. Much love, can't wait for the next video.
Sitting down to watch this now; expecting it to be meaty, as always. As a decade-long volunteer on city & county transportation & planning commissions, I've seen a lot of planning shenanigans that has opened my eyes to the reality of what it really is. But your videos (and our conversations) have even exploded all that. Thanks for your insightful research and deep, deep thinking. It's so rare on the internet (or anywhere, really, nowadays).
Another banger as usual. I do truly think that this is a major issue facing people working on the hyper local level. People just assume that things happening near them, like a park being built or a new apartment building are not political. The worst thing I've ever heard was the phrase "not to get all political" at a city council meeting. Ideological conflict is something local advocates and the general public arent used to.
I agree and I think it stems from the fact that (as mentioned in the video) people still view capitalism and representative democracy as these neutral, apolitical systems that would be ideal, if not for a few “bad apples” here and there. So to question those things is seen as having some sort of bias.
Thanks for the video, I've been waiting for you to finish it. (Also no rush, go at whatever pace you need.)
Something hit me as you were delivering your closing comments.
I admit to enjoying citynerd videos, I think Ray is a well-meaning guy and he does have an actual planning background.
BUT he doesn't seem willing or able to ask the questions behind the questions that serve as seeds for his videos.
It's always "What are the top 10 walkable US cities that won't bankrupt you?",
but it's never "what are the necessary conditions that require us to ask questions like this?"
With each of your videos, it becomes a bit clearer to me that
the deep conservatism of neoliberal RETVRN planning ideology plays around at the surface.
It will probably never knock the legs out from under its own stool.
That takes work from the rest of us.
Excited to see where you take this channel, thanks again for the videos. ✌
A masterpiece of a video. It’s a rough time for a lot of things, but it’s turning out to be a golden age of “learning leftist theory without listening to or becoming an asshole” thanks to videos like this and creators/educators like you. Unbelievably impressive that you are doing this in your free time while also managing a synth problem. Glad I can sign up to support the effort, keep fighting the good fight!
thank you!!
I really enjoyed this video! Radical planning was never discussed during my education as an urban planner!
This vid gives voice to a lot of concerns i’ve had in my work as a transportation planner. We aim to collect lots of public outreach for our plans, but the only thing public input impacts are our goals and objectives, but never the built environment directly. On top of that state departments of transportation can completely ignore this little bit of say the public has when they have their own goals of expanding roads because the level of service is “bad” (ie, we want to expand car throughput for financial gain. In the case of my town, that gain is expanding the ports).
I do work and sometimes feel like my job exists for the appearance of progress and community cooperation, when in actuality, state DOTs, developers, and the richest residents only win.
I’ve struggled to connect public input to direct societal improvements, but i now realize my city was designed to be that way. Give the appearance of input while bowing to business interests only.
Also, i am an Active Transportation Planner as well!!
Although it sometimes seems hopeless, we have made some progress because i’m weirdly passionate and hyper-focused on multi-modal transportation. Lots of cool safety and bike/ped projects are coming to the area, a lot of which i and my coworkers pushed for. That makes me hopeful that things could change, even if there are other glaring problems occurring.
Also, the section on rational planning was so cathartic and gets in the way of actually good planning. My least favorite form of this “rational” planning is the Performance Based Planning, in which we decide what number of human life is acceptable to lose on our roadways, should we target for.
I also hate the Level of Service and future transportation modeling. We make major decisions based on what we believe future traffic will be, and destroy entire communities through road expansion!!
Can’t wait to dive into all the resources you provided!
All of this is my exact experience. DOTs and performance based planning are a NIGHTMARE!
You continue to inspire me to not get jaded about working in planning and landscape architecture. Thank you for keeping me going, growing, and thinking
As a planning student, I have to say that finding this channel has really helped me grapple with my increasing disillusionment with the field.
In the beginning days of my degree I, like most others dipping their toes in the planning sphere, enjoyed watching 'urbanist' youtube. However now, after spending years studying planning theory, I find that those channels can honestly be a bit poisonous sometimes, particularly in the way it seems that they desire for every city in the world to be an Amsterdam 2.0. It became clear to me that many of these channels (which, notably, are very often just white men who have taken an interest in planning and not actual planners/people who have taken the time to really educate themselves about the field/people whose lives are upended by oppressive planning) were popularizing the idea that urbanist ideology is the course for an equitable future, ignoring the perspectives of people who are oppressed by urbanism practices, and labelling critics as NIMBYs. I mean, as much as planners nowadays like to tout that its a 'gender-balanced field', it still operates under the norms of white masculinity, as it has always done! Anyway, that's all to say that I really appreciate finding your critical voice amongst all these sycophants (maybe a tad dramatic lol).
Rant over!
spot on analysis!
Also some of them are non-profit societies masquerading as content creators.
about 5 years into an urban planning career here (and 2 minutes into the video): I think we can't discredit racial justice movements of 2020 and books like the color of law (even if most people only consumed summaries) as major influences on its current popularity as a topic
i’m really thankful for finding your channel please keep the faith. as a leftist who’s only learned urban planning through youtube, my planner friends, and a few books on neoliberalism and urban development - this channel has already changed my perspective on the development of my gayborhood in my hometown and so much of others. i really am thank you!
didn't listen to anything after you described urban planning games as toys, rather than games. practically a life changing revelation
A great video. It's so true that the urbanist space is incredibly homodox in theory. I also absolutely agree with your conclusion that planners - if we really desire a better world - need to think politically. It is not enough for planners to be technical experts or mouthpieces, they must be political organizers. Every plan must be a number in a manifesto, every community a coalition & constituency.
Confederation of confederations!
I couldn’t have put it better. Planners becoming organizers is just what we need for American cities to become as ready the level of their foreign peers. Perhaps lawyers and consultants need to become organizers and activists as well - or are they already?
Your videos are always very eye opening, thank you for being here doing what youre doing
" In ordinary usage, [deregulation] seems to mean 'changing the regulatory structure in a way that I like' " David Graeber, Utopia of Rules
this is seriously the most insightful urban planning video I've ever watched. that perpetual push & pull & resulting tension between wanting more housing (more development), & understanding the underlying, structural reasons behind why the housing crisis exists. advocating for those short term bandaid 'solutions' that don't address the crux of the issue
Half a year well spent sir.
I have been on the fence recently about going back to school for civil engineering (cost in terms of time and it’s monetary proxy; also, mind-breaking difficulty and overall hyper-competitive incentive structure) until I watched this: now I have a moral imperative to go. (And yes, I did just kick Hume in the Kant)
LOL
Watched every minute. As an aspiring planner, looking out and thinking to myself, “hmmm… it seems like there’s not a ton of planning focused roles out there focused on food insecurity, climate resilience, equitable and varied transportation…” thanks to you, I see that’s because those are not neoliberal things, and thus not the goal of urban planning as it stands today. Subscribed! Excited to learn more
Your channel is so great!! You deserve to have a much bigger following. I'm sending this to all my friends!
I've been an elected planning board member for about half a year now. I don't come from a planning background. I knew I hated the hyper individualized built environment I grew up in, and wanted to do something about it.
Strong Towns was my first way of getting simple, actionable steps to organizing my neighbor's to fight for something. I'd love for you to do a deeper dive into complimenting or critiquing them. They help an idiot like me understand what i can do about the problem on the ground level. I struggle to understand how to apply theory in the real world, ya know?
I just fought in my last planning board meeting to make building backyard cottages easier because i felt the board was trying to add as much legal friction as possible. I lost, but I also can't help but wonder if my de regulatory stance was just fighting for the neo liberal status quo? I just feel like it's a good option to make more affordable housing. Maybe I'm wrong.
I'd love any insights anyone has.
Hey, I have been listening to Strong Towns as well. Never got involved though. I think Strong Towns is a conservative movement, with a big focus on the fiscal conservatism values. They have a simple message that is hard to ignore because it's... common sense? Haha, that's the limit of my "political analysis".
Applying the lens that RP mentioned though to something that Strong Towns would support:
* What is being planned - A priority-lane for buses on a stroad
* For whom is it being planned - For people in a wealthy suburb so they can get downtown faster
* By whom is it being planned - planners in consultation with councillors from the suburb
* How is it being planned - not sure, I've forgotten what communicative planning is but I guess that since it's common these days
* Where is it being placed - on a stroad. Maybe there are other poorer suburbs nearby that don't have easy access to a bus stop and they'll just have to deal with more traffic now as they still need to drive on fewer lanes.
I'm not sure how relevant the assumed example is, nor whether I did a good job with the analysis. But it's important to try to practice what we learn from an hour long video. Stay radical ✊
I feel you about whether the fight you're fighting is from the side of good. All I can say is that we will never have perfect information nor perfect wisdom. If it turns out you fought for de-regulation and ended up further entrenching private property rights, well at least you tried in good faith. Next time you'll do better. Commit based on the information and wisdom you have now, don't judge based on hindsight, seek to learn more, and pivot if needed.
@@ChasmChaos thanks. I appreciate the input.
Absolutely great video. Just found your channel through this video. I really appreciate this viewpoint and knowledge about urbanism. As someone who's been in the urbanist circle for awhile and beginning to see the disconnect between online circles and actual on the ground politics of city planning. This helped me to fill in the gaps of my knowledge about why things are the way they are.
Keep up the fantastic work.
I absolutely love your youtube channel. Your videos are extremely high quality, and I commend you for that. I was already well on my way deep into leftist ideology, but you present it in a very digestible and legible way. I absolutely love your scripts and presentation. I can't thank you enough. I was "orange pilled" about a year ago now, but I was put off when I learned of the pitiful centrist Neo-Liberal aether around it all. When I found your channel, I was, and am, in the younger side and I was always very open to marxism and radical leftism, but your channel really helped ferry me along into viewing urbanism from a leftist perspective. Of course, I'm doing my own research and coming to conclusions on my own, and I don't use you as a source. I like to think I know better than that, the nature of medium and translation and all that. Tldr, I just wanted to say thanks. I really like your stuff it's really eye-opening, and I really deeply appreciate what you're doing. I can never view urbanism the same now. I feel so embarrassed as to how naive I was (and still am) 😅. Also, the synths in the background are one of my favorite parts of your videos. Have a great day, and thank you again.
My local city created a city operated concrete crew to fix sidewalks and potholes instead of hiring contractors. I’m hoping we can grow it to also build more infrastructure, like bike lanes, in the future. That’s my main source of hope for leftist progress in my city. It might not address the profits of nearby landlords but at least more of the money of the development process will go to the workers and city residents.
ive watched 0 mins of this video but commenting to say im excited to watch :^)
This video put into words a lot of ideas that I've had bouncing around my head during my planning undergrad. A sinking feeling I've had in the back of my brain navigating the job market after school while considering going to grad school. Well done.
Loved the radical geography shoutout! I'm not an urban planner, but I am an urban geographer. I think this video captured some of the issues I've had, but been unable to articulate, with a lot of the mainstream leftist discussion of urban planning. I found this channel originally through your critique of third spaces, and really grown to like it. I feel your videos are consistently engaging, pick up relevant topics, both for pressing material issues and for advancing the theoretical leftist discourse. Also, I feel very well versed the geography theory, so I think its healthy for me to be exposed to some of the tools and theories that are specific to urban planning. It is helping me gain a deeper understanding of my own field, which I really appreciate.
thank you!
I love your channel. I got in to this stuff through the urbanism RUclips channels, and found yours through the third place vid you make. I love your stuff.
We're so back baaaaby
Thanks for making academic writing easier for the layperson to understand. I try to read academic books or papers sometimes, but I always give up after like 4 pages, it just doesn't feel like English. I appreciate your videos!
Such a breath of fresh air. Your videos are absolute gold!
I suspect the interest in urban planning has something to do with the increasing gentrification and privatization of cities, contrasted with the stagnation of wages and the crumbling state of our environment/social services/ politics. People see that neoliberal capitalism is in its death knell and desperately want to find alternatives.
This. The general consensus that our current civilisation is in its death throes is hard to ignore. People can hoard canned food and ammunition to try o get themselves through the collapse, or they can work to rebuild before the collapse actually happens so that their families and communities survive and thrive together.
The only previous collapse of civilisation we really know much about is the fall of Rome - and we know the average person was better off afterwards, especially if they were a slave before and were now free, but also that only applied if they didn't die in the chaos.
easy: urban planning is whatever the people in charge want or are payed to 'want' to build and maintain. thats why nimbys hold so much power by simply existing
called it. thats why conpany towns are a thing
developers are in charge of development
I've been interested in urbanism for a while, and this was a fresh, new perspective for me to see. Thanks for your hard work. Subscribed!
I'm so happy that I found your channel last year, thank you for another outstanding essay b^.^d
It's like you read my mind with making this video - I've been trying to find leftist sources on this for so long. Not that they don't exist, but they're vastly outnumbered and not promoted anywhere online or in academia. Keep up the good work!
Great video. Good humour. Sweet beard. Thanks for all the work you do on your channel and content, and out there in the world.
Also, I liked your more casual ending comments. Peace !
Thank you !! ❤️
I definitely fell for the pop-urbanism RUclips trend. This video has not only helped me break down my preconceived notions about urban planning as inherently leftist but also forced me to start interrogating my own career path as an Environmental Engineer as I too will be working within the confines of capital when working to better the health of the planet.
love your videos, thanks for another
urban planning for me is when I hate driving and I want to impose that preference on everyone else
(I unironically hate driving and want to impose that on everyone else)
As a disabled person who cannot go anywhere other than in a private car, the more people you can provide with more attractive options than private cars, the easier it will be for people like me to be taken wherever we need to go. Just don't forget we exist and we'll support you all the way.
Also, it's been seven years and I still don't have a disabled parking tag, so please don't assume every disabled person has received one. The government has big financial incentives to pretend people aren't disabled, but sadly, pretending ever so hard still doesn't make the disability go away.
I hugely appreciate this type of content!
I’d love to see an example based video or something with radical plans or ideal plans or what people may decide if given the power etc
Great video! Would love to see you tackle post- and de-growth approaches to urban planning, the literature isn't huge but seems to me to have more legs than the frugality-based approaches
i hope to some day!
Around the 50 minute mark, I was just sitting there repeating to myself "A system is what it does, it is not what it SAYS it does." (Also, I appreciate this work because I've been... hunting for interesting planning channels that weren't people holding up the Netherlands as the Most Perfect Example in the World. Am not trying to position you against that, but it's been interesting to listen to a handful of videos.)
Holy S___!
This might just be one of the most eye-opening videos I have ever seen in this space.
No offense to all the rest, but this is the really deep down fundamental stuff we need to be talking about in urbanism circles, or we're never going to get to any of the dreamy ought-to-be ideas we're so focused on.
Plus, I think you really reveal something I've been talking about for awhile, but which gets all kinds of scorn from leftist and progressives (and was a huge part of why I finally left X/Twitter, before Elon); improving cities (urbanism) needs to be a core part of any progressive/leftist ideology, but it's almost universally not, in my experience. People not only don't want to talk about it, but so many will go the extra step of accusing you of being "bougie" or "out of touch" for trying to inject the topic into a discussion.
Yet, as I think you've laid out so well in this video (if my conclusion is correct): is that economy/system/power and cities/built-environment are intimately intertwined, and cannot simply be teased apart and separated into these distinct and isolated threads with any kind of real success. So, it's not only that the economic/governing model of society needs to change, in order to actually get to more human cities, but that the cities themselves also need to change in order to actually sustainably empower a change in the economic and governing model of society.
14:21 Missed an opportunity to rhetorically ask what deregulation means (usually it means whoever uses the word to describe their agenda first, despite usually expanding corporate bureaucracy)
I'm so glad I didn't go into planning after college after watching this video. Had no idea how neoliberal it was. Thank you for this video
Proud to say I knew this was a trick question since this is literally the field I’m studying. Still, it being so hard to think of a concise definition, especially to people who aren’t already familiar with it, is a bit embarrassing 😅
Can you please run for Mayor already
Recently read Seeing Like A State by James C Scott. I found it a very helpful corrective to the kind of modernist optimism about central planning schemes.
Ive never had to pause so much in a video, just to digest the bombs being dropped. One of your best, thank you
Posting a comment without having seen the video might seem like a rude thing to do but even ruder is not stacking the deck against the algorithm.
Incredible video! I paused and rewind multiple times and finally completed my first pass through. I will need to do another pass through to fully understand this. Technical request - Can you turn up the volume while recording?
i’m working with a really old mic, i need something better soon. i boosted the audio in my third place video and everyone got mad about that too haha.
@@radicalplanning haha, I might be deaf because I found the audio in that video great! 😆 Don't worry about changing the mic. It's not a big deal.
This is a fantastic video, great output
Just stumbled across your content. I really appreciate it. Please keep it up.
so glad I found your channel. ❤
6:16 you know, in real world, if the property value continues to increase outpacing real wage and it usually does, it's going to hurt the overall economy. so if the rise of the property value is the goal or means of your urban planning, it's doomed. i call this the bitter fruits of tying the revenue of a municipality to "property tax", which correlates with the property value. a well designed or functioning region is where people can go to their destinations with the least cost on everoney and the best convenience. i think the "racial" part should be on taxing rather than urban planning. taxes should come from economic activities, not the value of some eversitting property.
All taxes should be based on capacity to pay. Either income tax, or expenditure tax, or a combination of both. This doesn't preclude levying a vice tax on things like alcohol that people really don't need, or even imports tariffs despite how they suppress the economy, but it does mean we don't charge a tax on the saleable value of things people aren't even trying to sell.
I spent years watching my blind elderly grandmother shell out six weeks' gross income every year just in property taxes on the house she had inherited from her parents - and that was after the discount she got for being elderly and legally blind. I will never see property taxes as other than a means to drive out the poor and disabled from wealthy neighbourhoods so the rich don't have the inconvenience of seeing poor and disabled people in their streets.
Really appreciate your work!
Thank you for your work
What do you think of USSR style city planning? From what i know, i admire the interaction of city with nature side of things, the green belts around cities, protected forests in the city landscapes (that are sadly being slowly eroded away and in their place - horrible 18 story building in the middle of nowhere), public transit (the disfunctional economy couldnt produce 37716462 cars, had to fill fields of tanks, which is well, happy coincidence) and housing (khrushchevki and the rest) , which is nowadays very popular to crititicise.
i think they had some cool ideas, but i am personally avoidant of highly centralized, cookie cutter approaches. i get why they did it- creating new cities out of nothing doesn’t invite a lot of differing ideas. i’m hoping to compare 50s/60s soviet planning with american planning of the same era at some point next year, but i don’t have a lot of conclusions on it right now.
Thank you, reading more is a new goal. Thank you for providing further reading
Great analysis
I think your is-ought distinction in how to define planning is interesting, but I also think is misses the academic vs institutional planning distinction:
Planning in academia is a set of tools that can be used to analyse how different land use patterns and built environments effect people, society, and the economy.
Planning in practice is the state mediating between the property interests of different groups in society by deciding how to distribute space within an urban environment.
Both planning in academia and planning in practice are how planning is currently rather than how planning ought to be, and I think that a lot of the definitions you mention try to amalgamate these 2 different forms of planning into 1 definition.
Obviously I disagree with this, as demonstrated in my hour long video about it. Not sure what you'd want me to say.
I will answer all your rhetorical questions in the comment section actually if not just to boost the algy and because this is the internet
You're so great, knowledgeable and very handsome. Thank you and for this and never stop pls!
I love this! Have you ever considered going over historical socialist planning and explaining their pros and cons?
(If you've already done this, I apologise for my ignorance)
i am hoping to discuss this at some point this year: monoskop.org/images/d/dc/Gutnov_Alexei_et_al_The_Ideal_Communist_City_1971.pdf
not sure when i’ll get there but i’m looking forward to it!
@radicalplanning Brilliant news!! Thanks a ton
Nicely done. If I were to nitpick, I’d point out that John Locke provided most of the intellectual justification for the establishment and maintenance of a system of white supremacy in the US, but otherwise it was very good.
this is true and a caveat would have been helpful- i didn’t mean to say that i like his liberalism, just that whatever we have now is the worst of all worlds regarding the fathers of liberalism
Awsome video. Ty
Amazing vid!
Second and also also YIPPEE NEW VIDEO
Urban planning is the process of designing cities and other population centres with the intent of improving their performance according to the designer's codified or unexamined beliefs and priorities. Will that do?
Hi, I'm new here as a friend sent me a couple of your videos. What does urban planning look at under socialism? When you arrived at the definition of what urban planning is I had that question. Because it seemed fixated to it's historic relationship to capitalism. What did / does urban planning look like in the USSR, DPRK, China, Vietnam, Cuba, etc.
Subscribed. I have room o learn a lot from how you're thinking.
It's just marketing spin so vested interests can make as much money as possible while pretending to deliver something the people may actually want. Well, that's definitely what it is in Australia.
Unironic wow. Your answer actually captured some of the spirit of what RP is saying in his video.
Fire video!!! You should join and write for the Planners Network, a network for progressive planners
Likely you’re aware of them though
Anyway… I’d love to see these ideas written out regardless of where you publish
i actually interviewed Tom Angotti of PN a while back: ruclips.net/video/jjQUlg_cSZc/видео.html
i hope to write someday, but for now i only have enough time an energy for the vids!
just because you mentioned simcity. You should review Magnasanti for an april fools video or so. Great channel, many of your ideas go over my head becuase I though of city grownth as being somewhat organic, but I'm glad to gain a new perspective on gesellschaftskritik
never mind: just got the part lol
Can someone make a subreddit for radical planning. I want to chit chat about emergance :3
you should add chapter markers to your videos
will do- i thought youtube was doing that automatically
Fantastic work! I appreciate your clear leftist take on urban planning. Exposing the is-ought gap in current urban planning approaches helps to inform the average citizen when new planning gets announced.
38:05 Not just priced or bought out... L&I will condemn your single apartment to aid a hostile landlord evict you, even if the basis for the condemnation is their illegal removal of power and water utilities.
Fair Housing, the police, Philly311, and the courts will not do their jobs and the office of inspector general will not investigate the inspectors' failure to document all issues, the process server lying to the court about delivering lawsuit notices, about the city Philly311 vendor lying about 5 month outages, and their own failures to help citizens per legal parameters. Non-profits will ignore those who can afford to pay when no lawyer will represent such a client for money, when they lose their job that person won't "look poor" enough to deserve help either. The courts will not see the issues as an emergency and deprioritize the case and then allow the property owner to ignore court orders and destroy ones belongings. One may wait a year for trial and at trial the property owners lawyer may submit surprise evidence not disclosed during the discovery phase of the pre trial period. They may lie, introduce false evidence, slander your name and character during the trial. After trial, it may be four months and counting before a judge reaches a verdict. One may spend half their life savings while there were more than 30 failed inspections, a failed eviction hearing, 8 police reports, shutoff water and power, harassment, photographic evidence, bank records of escrow payments, and other evidence against a property owners not disclosed faked photos. This will not shorten the four months and counting...
They may unjustly enrich themselves redeveloping the property for AirBnB after one is removed. They may not ever have to get an inspection to make the roof decks safe, to fix the unsafe kitchrn renovations, to correct the boiler that was venting into the basement directly below a chase serving one's neighbor and one's apartments. One and one's neighbor may lose their homes of over a decade. One may lose faith in the City, the law, and the sociology one studied at university. One may receive no help from their LGBT community of which they were an integral member and supporter. One may wish the landowner had killed them rather than continue slowly circling the drain.
Ask me how I know....
urban planning is when you plan the urban
Not much of a comment bro. But saying thank you to get you up in terms of the algorithm gods
FIRST. and also YIPPEE NEW VIDEO
For the algorithm!
i adore ur marxist analysis
I just found your channel and I'm loving the content, but please stop adding background music. It's distracting and makes it harder to understand you
i mean this in good faith bc i think there's a need for ppl who help implement and coordinate changes to environments that ppl live in, but i don't see very developed radical vision or praxis laid out in the "building an alternative" portion of the video. forming a group and making "strong demands" to the state is not revolutionary. when you say "hold the line until we get them," what does that mean to you? and in settler states, to what end? to have settlers making choices about land they have no relationship to? there's no radical urban planning without at least a decolonization or land back shout out. this is like... DSA urban planning
it’s called “building an alternative” in reference to the need to build an alternative, not as a precise guide on how to do so. in that segment i said education is the most important thing right now because this movement is nonexistent. that segment was not a call to action, it was a rough outline of how any movement gains power. my videos are not guides for organizing, they are critiques on neoliberal urban planning.
Radical needs to be defined in a context. Don't you think that neoliberalism ideology is so steeped in urban planning that the very act of questioning and rejecting mini-ideologies like YIMBYism is radical? Capitalism subsumes everything because people try to work within its framing and limitations. Dismantling that framing is radical. Forming a group and making strong demands to the state may not be sufficient, but it is definitely necessary.
Hmmm as an architecture student i know what urban planning is for certain 😎
Ahem... i can see your is/ought gap dude.
my favorite kinda marxist 😍
I really don't think I have met a planner who has the intellectual capacity to understand any part of your definition of urban planning. I have a rather comical image of a slack jawed planner staring at your definition while a fly is flitting in and out of their mouth.
My view of a planner's job while working for a city is to provide good advise. Hopefully, that good advise will be stated in a way that is compelling. My point is, that is the limit of what a planner can do; advise. You might say, "well that's simple and obvious," but where I am from, good planning advise seldom happens. While I have studied the problem for a long time and there are lots reasons why good advise doesn't happen, but the most significant reason seems to be that planners don't seem to know what they are doing, why they are doing in it and how to do it. The act of planning doesn't seem to be taught in schools here.
Planning is an effort to solve an economic problem: how do we make a given area more productive? Productivity would be determined by the number of people who use that area, the number of uses for that area, and what is made or produced in that area. Another consideration is the duration that area is to be used, which requires considering the sustainability of the activities in that area. Let's say we are considering an area that is a park. Our relevant concerns are how many people use the park, what is the park used for, and what is produced in the park. The product might be community events, family and friend gatherings, play, rest, fitness to name just a few. Our next question is how easy is it to engage in the activities provided for by said park. This is just economics. The advice derived from answers to these questions is going to be useful. Politicians will be able to make sound decisions based on this advise, and urban designers are going to be able to start the design process based on this same advise.
A wise professor once told me that economics is a long running study of human behaviour. When he said it the first thing I thought was, "Hey, that's what I do." And then I thought, "Oh my god. does this mean that I'm an economist?" and then I thought, "If I am an economist, how do I keep this from my mother." As it turns out, planning is just a practical application of what we understand of human behaviour through the study of economics as it relates to land use. . . Still, I didn't tell my mom that I do planning.
As a planner, though, I am much more sympathetic to the writings of Adam Smith than Karl Marx. This might be because I'm something of a moralist and I think that if we care for, and appreciate all manner of human behaviour we can encourage good, productive behaviour by recommending urban form that accommodates it.
Your thoughts are very compelling, I enjoy them very much.
Never heard of urban planning before and only clicked the video because I thought the guy was hot TBH. BUT I'm glad I did because I thought it was really interesting
very cool video papi urbanist 🙉
To say that cities cannot be built under other economic theories outside of capitalism is just false. Also I too am an urban planner working in the Rust Belt, and while getting my MUPP I never had a class that involved games to instruct. This is very weird to me, particularly as this does little to resolve the problems plaguing cities across the US. The only value I can see is if you're developing burbs out of farmland.
there are no cities in america that are planned under non-capitalists economies what are you talking about
@@radicalplanning Abroad I would suggest you look at Mondragon, Spain. Instead of pontificating and dismissing, look for solutions. Cities, particularly in the US, need help responding to crises BECAUSE of neoliberal capitalism. Urban Planning is a comparatively young study, but one that grew out of social, economic, and environmental disasters of the first Gilded Age.